1. Technical Field
An improved fully automated dispensing system for preparing cosmetics products at a point of sale is shown and described. The disclosed dispensing system utilizes nutating pump technology. An improved method of preparing a cosmetics product at a point of sale is also disclosed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Multiple pump dispensing systems have been used in the paint industry. Specifically, such a dispensing system incorporating multiple pumps dispensing viscous fluids, such as paint colorant, from flexible packages is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,273,298, owned by the assignee of the present application. Typically, such systems include piston pumps mounted on a rotary turntable with each pump coupled to the flexible package containing a viscous fluid, such as a colorant. The turntable, with the pumps and packages mounted thereon, is rotated until the desired pump and package is disposed over the container to be filled. A control system is utilized to rotate the table and control the amount of material dispensed from the packages by the pumps. Linear type dispensing systems are also known.
Some currently available paint colorant dispensers utilize nutating pumps and a computer control system to control the pumps. Nutating pumps have a piston which is positioned inside of a housing having a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet. The piston simultaneously slides axially and rotates inside of the housing. Existing nutating pumps have been operated by rotating the piston through a full 360° rotation and corresponding linear travel of the piston. Such piston operation results in a specific amount of fluid pumped by the nutating pump with each revolution. Accordingly, the amount of fluid pumped for any given nutating pump is limited to multiples of the specific volume. If a smaller volume of fluid is desired, then a smaller sized nutating pump is used or manual calibration adjustments are made to the pump.
For example, in paint colorants, a minimum dispense can be about 1/256th of a fluid ounce. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,540,486 and 6,398,513 disclose improvements to nutating pump technology which provide for more accurate dispensing of paint colorants and other fluids such as hair dyes and cosmetics applications. Both of these patents are commonly assigned with this application and are incorporated herein by reference.
It is the intention of this disclosure to show and describe additional applications for nutating pump technology to the cosmetics industry and to further disclose improved point of sale cosmetics preparation and dispensing systems.
Not all cosmetic products are universally applicable. Consumers having dry, oily or normal skin may require treatment products especially formulated for their particular condition. Hair products including shampoos, conditioners, hair dyes and permanent wave solutions are all quite sensitive to individual characteristics of the treated hair. No generic formula fits all types. Even more complicated are color cosmetics. A rainbow of shades are necessary to meet public demand. Stores find it a significant problem to stock all possible variations of a particular color cosmetic.
To address these problems, point of sale cosmetic dispensing machines have been developed. EP 0 443 741 discloses a formulation machine for preparing cosmetically functional products. The machine includes a plurality of containers for storing various cosmetic ingredients. An input mechanism is provided for entering into a computer specific criteria representative of a customer's needs. A series of instruction sets are then sent from the computer in response to the specific input criteria to a dispensing mechanism.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,262 describes an automatic cosmetic dispensing system for blending selected additives into a cosmetic base. A similar system is described in German Patent 41 10 299 with the further element of a facial sensor.
Other systems involve a skin analyzer for reading skin properties, a programmable device receiving the reading and correlating same with a foundation formula, and a formulation machine. Components of the formula held in a series of reservoirs within the machine are dosed into a receiving bottle and blended therein. These systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,622,692 and 5,785,960. Because the systems disclosed in the '692 and '960 patents suffer from relatively poor precision, nutating pump technology was applied to improve the precision of the system as set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 6,510,366.
Certain problems are associated with the above-cited prior art in terms of the dispense functions. Specifically, the '692, '960 and '366 patents all dispense fluid through a single manifold disposed above the container or vial. As a result, specially designed and miniaturized nozzles and manifolds must be designed to accommodate the large variety of ingredients that may be used in any one cosmetics preparation. Specifically, for high quality cosmetics products, while only several different ingredients may be used for a specific formula, to accommodate for a wide variety of skin types, a dispensing machine should preferably be able to accommodate an excess of ten or twenty different ingredients. Thus, the stationary manifold and nozzle design is impractical.
Another problems associated with current cosmetics dispensing machines relates to the viscosity of the ingredients. Specifically, the slurries utilized in a cosmetics preparation can be very viscous and, while nutating pumps are inherently accurate, the viscous material may form a large drip at the end of the nozzle. Considering the small quantities that may be used for a cosmetics preparation at a point of sale, a large drip that is not transmitted to the container or an excess drip that is transmitted to the container may affect the color or quality of the resulting product. Currently available dispensing systems do not accommodate or compensate for this drip problem.
Another problem associated with current dispensing systems for cosmetics relates to mixability. Specifically, base materials and tints or colorants are relatively viscous. When the ingredients that include one or more colorants are dispensed into a narrow neck container, the colorant may often splash or coat the neck of the container and, once the colorant material is disposed on that neck, it is very difficult to get that portion of colorant mixed into the final preparation. Even high speed gyroscopic mixers will not distribute colorant disposed on the neck of a small bottle into the rest of the formulation after long periods of mixing.
Thus, there is a need for an improved way to prevent colorant or tinted materials from engaging the neck of the bottle during the dispensing of the cosmetics preparation. Further, along these same lines, because of the viscosity of the ingredients of a cosmetics product, mixability remains a concern and there is a need for an improved dispensing method which will make the subsequent mixing of the product faster and easier.
Finally, currently available dispensing systems for cosmetics products are able to accommodate containers of only a single size. Because retailers may want to sell customized products in different containers and different container styles, there is a need for an improved dispensing system which can accommodate such containers of varying sizes and styles.